Writing Our Chapter

Last Sunday we went to a family reunion in Northern California that gathered together descendants of my paternal grandmother’s family. It was great to see my aunts and cousins, but the best part of the reunion was getting to look at a collection of family photos – some dating back as far as the 1870s – that I had never seen before.

There was my grandmother, Jane, looking angelic as a five-year-old in 1910:

She looked much different than the woman I knew (seen below ninety-two years later at my sister’s wedding):

There was a photo of Jane’s husband, my grandfather George, rocking bizarrely feminine ringlets some time around the sinking of the Titanic:

There was my Great Aunt Madeline:

Though my great aunt died before I could meet her, she was such a beloved family figure that, when Heather suggested we name our first born Madeline, I immediately knew it was the perfect name.

And then there was a photo that gathered all of these people and more sometime in the Roaring Twenties:

That’s my grandfather in the upper right hand corner, and grandmother standing in the center.

Lastly, there was the oldest photo in the collection, one of my great-great-grandparents, William and Magdalena Langguth (and their daughter Cora), who came to America from Germany around the time of the Civil War. In fact, Magdalena’s brother, Henri, signed up to fight for the Union shortly after arriving in America and perished somewhere on a Southern battlefield. I recognize in their faces more than just traces of the physical features we share. I also recognize a familiar sadness. William and Magdalena, you see, lost their first three children in childhood. Being poor immigrants, they had no money to bury their children anywhere but in Potter’s Field. Twenty-years later, however, William and Magdalena were able to buy a family plot at a proper cemetery and had their three deceased children exhumed and transferred there. Once William and Magdalena too passed, they were placed alongside the children that went before them.

It is interesting to look at photos such as these and to think about family and ancestry. Though it only take a couple generations for our ancestors to become little more than strangers to us, we nevertheless are continuing the same story by adding a chapter full of our own triumphs and tragedies to the ones they wrote before us.

Sarah says:

I love looking at old family photos too and wanted to share the experience with my daughter. But having just turned 4yrs, I’m always nervous that she might mush those precious one of a kind old photos. So I scanned them into my computer and went to Shutterfly.com and printed up a large collage of 24 of my family photos and then did the same with photos of my husband’s family. I then went to the store and got both lamented so we can use them as placemats for meals. My daughter particularly loves the photos of her parents, aunts & uncles and grandparents as little kids. And I love watching my father point to the photo of his grandmother and then tell his grandaughter stories about her. We’ve found it a great (safe!!) way to keep relatives and old family stories as part of our day to day lives 🙂

Kristie says:

Ah… the good old days, right? Thank you for sharing. I didn’t get the opportunity to know my grand parents very well. I knew them but I was very young when they passed away. I do love to talk with elderly people. They have the best long term memories. Until I moved to Arizona, I had a boss that was in his 80’s. He was a retired Captain in the Navy and had so many stories to tell. He is an amazing man.

What wonderful photos! And so great to have your family history living with the stories handed down through generations. I come from a very large family (gfather had 13 siblings, his father had 8 and so on) but we mainly all live in the same city, so there are few reunions and chances to share these stories.
I started researching my family history, on line and in the local graveyards, and the one thing that struck me was the number of children lost in childhood.

Jenn says:

I’m sure your aunt Madeline is having a beautiful time with your Maddie in heaven right now. I know you would of course rather her be with you but I’m sure it brings you a little solace knowing their are people in heaven who know and love her too!

mp says:

I love old family photographs–thank you for sharing! I can see some resemblances. It’s always amazing to think of how differently our ancestors lived their lives. They were so much more difficult than our own. I always feel I have it pretty easy comparatively, but then I wonder if my great-grandkids will someday marvel over my primitive existence.

Kristi says:

Thanks for sharing these amazing photos! I love researching my family history and I’m fascinated by the family photos I’ve come across. I’ve often been struck by the same thought you had that my family today is adding another chapter to the story that my family from the past was telling. I try to imagine what they’d think if they saw all of us who’ve come after them and knew what our lives are like.

The last story you shared about your great-great grandparents is sad and touching. I’m so glad that they got to bury their children properly later on and that they rest by them now.

I love family history- it’s great that you have these photos and know some of the stories of those who came before. I think it’s important to know where we come from and keep those stories alive.
Personally, I recently found out that my great-great-grandmother, a person who died young and no one living in the family now knew, actually lived within a mile or so of where I live now. And her son was born in the same neighborhood of our city where my son was born over a 100 years later. I find things like that to be a little mindblowing, and so cool.

Barbee says:

I love hearing about family history and seeing photos, even when it’s not from my own family. 🙂 I really enjoyed seeing your pictures. My family has always been so bad about knowing our ancestory and keeping pictures.

My husband’s family is the opposite and knows things that are maybe even TMI like the date of a great-grandmother’s hysterectomy or when another certain family member had to be sent to the um, erm, psychiatric ward and for how long. Then they put it in a homemade book that they distribute to everyone in the family. Lol! But I still find it fascinating. 😉

Minnyc says:

This got me to thinking about a chalk drawing someone once did for my grandma of my grandma. It was beautiful. My uncle has it now and I really want it but wouldn’t know where to put it as it is quite large. I’d almost want to donate it to a museum, it’s that good.

Sherry says:

Those are some pretty cool photos, thanks for sharing them. It’s funny you posted about this today, as my husband and I were JUST talking about the fact that our relatives from a few generations ago are now nothing but very distant memories to us (if any memories at all). We also realized that WE would soon be forgotten and gone, too. But the awesome part is that we continue this legacy and hopefully later generations will look at OUR pictures too…and maybe even post them on a blog for thousands to see!! 🙂

Amanda M. says:

That’s some crazy stuff! I spent my Christmas doing similar things–my grandpa busted out the old family tree and showed my some photos. They were very nice to look at, and later I went home and looked at the Wikipedia entries for a few of my ancestors. xD

MrsP says:

How great that you could see and know so much of your families history. Hopefully one day I can leave the same for my children and have my great great grandchildren see who we were in the future. How awesome!

nona says:

I saw these photos on Heather’s flickr yesterday, and I was 99.9% sure it was your (Mike’s) side of the family, based on looks. I’m intense in my study of family resemblances, because I was adopted, so it is something that I don’t have, and that I long for.

Our past is our future… We only live on through our children and grandchildren. As I get older I am looking back more… It’s good to know where you came from and from who you decend, its part of who we are. Nice post!